would attract an intellectual level of participant, small, independent (educational tourist) expeditions to remote areas often make valuable scientific observations (IUCN, 1994).Negative ImpactsNo man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby, - so helpless and so ridiculous (Emerson,1833, cited in Walton 1992 p. 56).With such a fragile environment, the need to learn the language of Antarctica is paramount.Antarctic Birds and the Human ImpactThe bird life in Antarctica is a feature of tourist interest. The numbers of birds breeding around the rocky coastline and the offshore islands are enormous, 100 million or more individuals including four species of penguins, several species of petrels, skua, gulls and terns. Each spring the coast of Antarctica awakens with the return of millions of seabirds to breed. Their arrival is a dramatic end to the long dark polar winter. First to arrive are the Adelie Penguins, who have walked, often up to 50km, across the sea ice to reach their nesting grounds. The petrels and skuas arrive soon after, flying in from the open sea. Most of the established breeding birds return to the same nest site and to the same mate. When necessary, the site is cleared of snow and the pair bond re-established before the new breeding season begins (Antarctic Birds, 1977).Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands have been isolated for a long time, and those birds which colonised the areas have done so in the absence of terrestrial predators. Most exhibit a remarkable tameness which permits close observation and study. Communal nesting habits, and in the case of penguins and petrels, extreme adaptation to a pelagic life have left the birds highly vulnerable to the activities of man.Nesting birds, even penguins in the dense rookeries, are easily disturbed and will desert their nest. This causes a disruption in the orderliness of the colony, f...
